Is Social Marketing Effective?

A word of guidance to all retailer marketers, please take time to define your goals in the social media space, be realistic and familiarize yourself with the “language and feel” of the space.
The article Social Media Best Practices in eMarketer it wrote that In late 2008, MarketingSherpa surveyed social media marketers about the effectiveness of their practices. Large majorities rated social media marketing effective at influencing brand reputation, increasing awareness and improving search rankings and site traffic.
Social media was considered less effective, but still good, for internal communications and driving online sales.